


Comorbidity

by Rikudera



Series: Comorbidity [1]
Category: Homestuck
Genre: Blood, Gen, Illustrated, Language, M/M, Off-screen Minor Character Death, Podfic Available, Serious Injuries, kids and fun
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-11
Updated: 2013-07-11
Packaged: 2017-12-19 03:00:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,856
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/878636
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rikudera/pseuds/Rikudera
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Somewhere in the universe, a battle is won and a croak is heard. On the other side of that universe, the only sound other than Karkat’s labored breathing is the dull hum of the computer. The code will run in roughly ten and a half minutes.</p><p>He feels so far away you can’t stand it. There are so many things to make better that you don’t know where to start.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Comorbidity

**Author's Note:**

> Many thanks to my lovely beta, [Sam](http://archiveofourown.org/users/mostlyharmless/pseuds/mostlyharmless)!
> 
> Certain events in the fic are intended to be a surprise, but if you must look at all the warnings, please see the note at the end.
> 
> Here is a link to the podfic I made: [skreee!](http://www.mediafire.com/download/nb7vv3g5ma6a70z/Comorbidity.mp3)
> 
> EDIT: This fic now has an illustration commissioned from [ket3](http://archiveofourown.org/users/ket3)! Please mind the tags.

“Egbert, you there?” It takes a few moments to register why the voice sounds strange, and then you realize it’s because you haven’t heard Karkat speak so quietly before.

“Hey, answer me, you asshole.” Or have you? Yeah, maybe once before. It had been such a strange feeling. His attempts at gruffness don’t fool anyone at the regular volume, and this quieter attempt even less so.

“…John?” It takes effort to roll over and face him, but you manage, groaning lowly.

“Karkat?” He looks like he’s about to cry, though you can’t tell if it’s from sadness, relief, or both at once. Knowing Karkat – and it hits you more than ever that you really are glad you do – it’s probably both and then some. "I'm sorry," you grin.

"Don't apologize, stupid," Karkat says as he starts to cry. Little patches of him here and there, his irises, his face and hair, are still grey and black. Everything else is covered in red. You know one of his arms is stained crimson from that trick he did to get rid of the Miles earlier, but it's difficult to pinpoint where exactly the rest is coming from. Trolls bleed a lot more than humans, though, so maybe he’s not as bad off as you.

You really hope so, at least.

"John?" You blink through the dizziness until your eye focuses on his face again.

"I'm still here," you answer. You want to make this better for him, and you don't know how.

It’s so quiet here; the only sound other than Karkat’s labored breathing is the dull hum of the computer. You suppose it’s a decent compromise between the semi-literal hurricane of battle outside and the claustrophobic silence inside the winding corridors of this meteor facility. It hadn’t been easy trying to block out the shrieking eldritch collateral around you and your enemy, even after the deadly distraction of the Miles was gone and you’d all but ordered Karkat inside so you could unleash your full powers. Your glasses only stayed on through the cacophony because parts of them got embedded when you were walloped in the face. The hardest part was following a crimson trail and not knowing if Karkat had made it all the way to the computer.

"I wish you didn't have to be stuck here, too," you add.

Everything had been so immediate, when Karkat had insisted on joining you on this mission. His voice was low and urgent, his hands gripping your biceps, his face so close, and knowing you were the cause of the pain in his expression had terrified you in ways you couldn’t explain. You felt so selfish for letting him talk you into it, still do.

Now, he feels so far away you can’t stand it. There are so many things to make better that you don’t know where to start.

"As if you could've written all that code by yourself," Karkat scoffs. Knowing that he's so dedicated to being grumpy makes it easier for your smile to remain relaxed, in turn.

He's got a point; ~ATH is a persnickety language at the best of times, and writing all that code on the fly while dealing with fallout from _certain distractions_ is how the two of you ended up here. Like this.

There was no time to think about the way you and Karkat were leaning on each other to stay standing while you were focused on the code, and you fell into a comfortable argument with Karkat about how annoying ~ATH could be. You didn’t have to think about the blood and vitreous humor slicking the right side of your face because that wasn’t the side facing Karkat and the two of you were busy working out who was in charge of which sets of parens. For once, the time limit was reassuring.

It was only after the code was finished that you allowed yourself to collapse on the floor. You hadn't even taken five steps. You don't remember how Karkat had gotten on the floor.

You still wish there could’ve been a better way. He reaches out to grab your hand; you know he’s thinking of Sollux, and why it’s you and Karkat here instead of him. That makes you think of what happened to Jade, so you reach back and squeeze his fingers.

“Maybe I could’ve,” you protest as Karkat tries to pull himself closer to you; for every few inches, he coughs. “I’m tougher than you, anyway,” you add. “I’ll be fine in like, ten minutes. You’ll get an awesome light show and everything.” Actually, it’s roughly closer to six, but Karkat doesn’t need to know that. You try to meet the distance between you to prove the point.

“It’s that kind of cavalier thinking that prevents your flashy pajama powers later,” Karkat replies. He snaps it out like he does all his insults, but you’re close enough now that you can tell he’s trying not to smile.

“Thanks.” You squeeze his hand again. Your red brushes up against his red.

"Airhead," Karkat says affectionately. You laugh and try to focus on the grey instead of how dizzy you are, which is especially difficult now that you don't have any depth perception. Karkat almost laughs, but it comes out as another cough.

"You wanna see a magic trick?" you ask suddenly. You can't get the sound of Karkat's coughing out of your head. Maybe this will fix it.

"...What?" Karkat blinks his big, lamplike eyes. It’s still fun to surprise him like this.

"Dave taught me how to do it, kind of," you explain, grinning. You hold out the hand that isn't gripping Karkat's away from the giant computer, towards the wall opposite the computer, palm flat and fingers splayed. Biting your lip to keep silent, you concentrate and make sure the miniature tornado shooting from your hand is just large enough to do its job. You can't focus enough to see it, but you can feel it punch through all the way. "Not the drill part, but, um..." you take a few seconds for everything to stop spinning, "just listen for a second."

Karkat makes a soft little _kreee_ sound that probably means something rude in troll. He’s probably going to scold you.

"You shouldn't be using your powers any-" Yep.

"Shh, only magic now." Karkat's breathing is shallower than you wish it was, but he doesn't say anything for a few seconds.

Then, a distant whooshing, and The Breeze delivers what you've been anticipating. Far in the distance, simultaneously about a billion miles away and less than six minutes in the future, there is a faint croak. Karkat _kreee_ s again.

"What do you think we should name him?" you ask. Karkat's eyes are very wide.

"We're not supposed to be able to hear that.” He clutches tighter. “We’re in a doomed timeline, aren’t we?”

“No, it’s okay, everyone’s okay.” That was what you wanted to tell him. “What about Ginormo-Croak?” You want to reassure him as best you can.

“But if we can hear it, then _you know who_ can hear it, too.” Karkat is not reassured.

“No way, Calliope kicked his ass into next week.” There’s not going to be a next week in this universe. If the code you and Karkat wrote is right, there’s only going to be a next five minutes. You bet if you looked at the computer, it would be closer to four. “If anything was going to go wrong, wouldn’t it already have happened?” Karkat’s clinging to you. You cling back. “The way Paradox Space works is that everything keeps happening at the same time, so hearing the croak means that we won, right?” You think that’s right, at least.

“You have literally no clue what you’re actually doing, do you?” He’s probably trying to sound exasperated, but it’s not working.

"It won't change the past," you try again, "or we would've been warned in advance, so in the future, we'll have already..." You think you lost track of where that sentence was going. Now Karkat just looks confused. "I don't really get how the time stuff works, but... Dave told me it would be okay." Your head hurts. Among other things.

“But this Paradox Space wasn’t supposed to know about the new universe,” Karkat insists. “How is it even remotely possible we didn’t fuck something up?”

“We’re outside the timeline of the new universe, remember?” Karkat still doesn’t look reassured. “It’s self-contained, so we already know that everyone made it out of here okay, or the frog would have retroactively been destroyed before it had the chance to show up in the first place.”

“That’s not a fucking guarantee, if you remember what I explained to you in both meticulous and excruciating detail, the last time I heard a giant universe-frog...” He looks like he wants to launch into a rant, but stops and coughs again.

“Dave said there was a window of time between the frog’s creation and the move to the new space, so-”

“Strider can stick his-” you don’t find out the end of that prediction because Karkat coughs again.

"...So we know they’ll be fine in the new frog because they're already there," you finish proudly. Karkat groans. “Heheheh.”

"That's not fucking funny," Karkat scowls. “I think I’d rather hear that stupid stair meme than hearing about people who are already in various places.”

"Hey, go a little easy on me, comedy's hard," you shoot back, still smiling. His expression doesn't change, so maybe he doesn't get your extremely funny reference. It's probably just as well. “But,” your own expression turns serious, “we didn’t fuck anything up.”

“This time, you mean.”

“And lots of times before. We were great friendleaders.” Karkat goes _kr_ but instead of an _eee_ , he keeps coughing. You ignore his earlier admonition and use your powers to try pushing more air into his lungs, anything to stop him coughing so much. There’s no helping his bleeding, to say nothing of the bifurcated ~ATH code that won’t run until both its authors obey the constraints of the language, but you can’t lie here and do _nothing_.

“ _You_ were. I was an atrocious leader.”

“No, you were great.” You get really sad when you think about how Karkat isn’t used to hearing good things about himself. “I… I wish you didn’t have to be here, like this, I mean, but I’m glad you _are_ here.” Karkat starts crying again; between his labored breaths, it verges on a combination of a wheeze and that throaty, alien kricking. You swallow roughly; you don’t know why your powers aren’t working like they’re supposed to. “I didn’t want to be by myself…” You start crying, too. It’s not that Karkat can’t breathe; it’s that you think there’s something in the way of his lungs. “I mean…” you can’t tell if you’re shaking because you’re scared or because you’re going into shock, “…I’m glad it’s you.”

You were going to go by yourself. Someone needed to write a program on a specific computer in a certain amount of time. Even without certain forces standing in the way, the computer was too far away from Skaia to come back in time. Kanaya had to work on the frog, and Dave was, quote, fuck deep in a stupid prophecy that didn’t do shit for anyone. Jade… you don’t have any words about Jade. You were a leader, you could get there fast enough, and you knew how to code. It was that simple.

Karkat had disagreed. He said that the code was bifurcated in a specific way, that someone had to watch your back until the code was done, that he was the only one immune to the Miles, and that he was a leader, too.

“Stop using your powers,” Karkat says. You realize what is in the way of Karkat’s lungs, what is twining through them and growing out of control like a weed. If it spread here from his arm, you don’t want to think about where else it could be. You realize that Karkat knew his body’s chances of recovering from this. “You need to save your strength.” You try to gaze back stubbornly through your tears.

“I’ll only be a couple more minutes, anyway,” your smile is only barely substantial. “This makes it more even.” This is how you will tell Karkat you just figured out his method of stopping the Miles. Karkat’s mouth twists. “Sorry.”

“We only need one self-flagellating asshole on this stupid meteor,” Karkat coughs, “and I’m much more experienced at filling that position, thanks.” He starts shaking, too. You think it’s a little less scary to be scared together.

“But I was so mean to you earlier, about coming here with me, for… for dumb reasons.” God Tier never really mattered for a mission like this in the long run, everyone knew that. There was never going to be a fancy light show in the wake of coding yourself into an ~ATH program so that everyone else could have a chance with the frog. There had been no warning your sister about the Sun, or how closely her fate was tied to it. Sollux had been right about the code, but not in the way you and Karkat found out until very recently. You didn’t know how to respond to Karkat with the surety needed to go on the mission alone when he wasn’t shouting at you.

“No, you’re-”

“Let me finish, I…” it’s so difficult to concentrate, “…I was mean about other stuff, too.” Karkat’s face tells you he understands what you’re trying to say. You don’t understand your feelings about Karkat at all. “I was stupid, and I made everything difficult when it didn’t need to be, and…”

“No, you were the one that made everything great.”

“Karkat…” It’s not so much a question or statement as it is simply wanting to say his name.

“Yeah.” You breathe into Karkat’s mouth and squeeze your fingers together until they go numb.

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

 

You drift, and Karkat makes funny little alien sounds.

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

 

“John?” You blink slowly. How did you get on your back again? Your head is in someone's lap, and you don't feel half as terrible as before. It feels like you’ve been asleep forever. "John, wake up."

"...Nanna?" Everything is so fuzzy and tingly. One of her hands briefly rests on your head, then joins the other hovering over your abdomen. You’re not half as dizzy anymore, and you don’t think your face has half your glasses embedded in it. Your stomach doesn’t hurt anymore, either. You blink, and see a vague outline of short hair and glasses.

“Not exactly.” You blink again. Jane's face swims into focus. You don't feel that fantastic, but you don't think you're going to bleed out anymore. "I need to switch." Jane puts your head back on the ground and leaves.

"How are you here?" you ask her. She turns, and you watch her kneel next to Karkat, who’s laying a little further away from you again. You can’t tell how much time has passed. You have no idea how you’re still alive.

"Because you guys are shit at coding and if anyone halfway competent at it tried, we would’ve all been retroactively fucked by the causality loops three days ago," Dave says. “I don’t actually know how you guys sucking at coding made it work, just that it did.” You look up at where he’s floating on the other side of you; you don’t know why you didn’t notice him until now. "The croak’s only going to last about ten and a half minutes, relatively speaking, so if we don't get our shit together and haul you dorks through the portal soon, we'll miss our exit." His voice is as smooth as it's ever been, but the stump of his leg is dripping through what looks like the remains of his cape and onto the floor.

"But it won't run until me and-"

"-Vantas get your asses into Señor Mucoso's vast and twinkly bile sac, and are therefore considered dead in this iteration of the multiverse." You struggle to sit up and make sense of all this, and the room promptly starts spinning again. Dave catches you as you tip over and lifts. "Try floating instead of walking." It works like magic, and the room levels.

"Karkat-"

"Crocker's patching him up right now, see?" Sure enough, Jane's bent over Karkat's now-supine form, a cerulean aura hovering around them.

“Jane, the Miles-” The insides of Karkat’s lungs are not going to be visible, so you need to tell her.

“I know,” she replies briskly. Her voice is unflinching optimism over brutal exhaustion. “I can remove the growth and heal the internal damage, but any external injuries will have to be bandaged until later.” She looks like she hasn’t slept in days. “You’ll have to fly us back. I need to borrow your hood, by the way.” In the time it takes you to blink again, Dave’s already sliced the tail off your hood and is handing it to Jane. “Thank you.”

“Dave, your leg…” He looks down. You wish you weren’t too confused to finish sentences. You don’t think your hood was even blue anymore.

“Fuck, lemme tighten it again.” Dave starts using his sword hilt as a tourniquet, wrapping the cloth around it and steadily turning it like a crank to a gear. You watch his impassive face, his hands moving mechanically, the fabric twisting as it cuts the blood flow off once more, and then you decide to watch Jane bandaging Karkat instead. That efficiency is a little easier to watch.

“Dave…” You start again.

“It’s not that bad.” When you look back at him, he’s smirking. “You think I look like shit, you should see the other guy.” You pull a face.

“No way!” If you never see the other guy again, it’ll be too soon.

“I concur with Egbert that the other guy is someone we most definitely do not want to fucking see ever again.” Jane is holding Karkat up so he’s floating with the rest of you. You transfer Karkat to hovering under your power, and Jane gives you a tired smile in silent gratitude. Karkat clings. It feels right that way.

“I had to dodge, and it was either that or my shades, so.” Dave shrugs, then smirks again. “Dude, you should have seen the look on his face, though, when Calliope showed up.” Karkat scoffs, which is reassuring. He looks like he's ready to start a scathing retort, but Dave holds up a hand in advance. "But that’s a story we can save for later because we seriously need to get our asses moving. We have to take the long way, and I can only help us cheat so much."

"How long do we have?" you ask. Dave looks in the direction of your miniature wind tunnel. What was merely a palm-sized opening a few minutes ago has cracked the building in two. A group of four people would have plenty of room flying out, which is much preferable to following the trail of blood and rubble you and Karkat left on your way in. The edges look peeled-back, and you can see three-tined scratches from where Jane must have cracked it open like you and Karkat were sardines in a can.

"Enough, if you hurry. Crocker and I marked the route on our way here." Jane _hoo hoo_ s. You'll have to hear _that_ story later, too, apparently.

"Alright!" You kick up a wind and watch Karkat attach himself even more firmly. When you look back at Dave and Jane, Dave is giving you a thumbs-up. "Heheh. You guys ready?"

“Most certainly,” Jane says. She holds onto Karkat's other hand, and Dave takes Jane hand in turn.

"John,” Karkat hisses in your ear, “if you do anything to even slightly resemble dropping me on my pathetic, bony sitplates, I swear I am never speaking to you again." You grin and take off. Flying is definitely the best solution to everything.

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

 

“…Dave, are you singing _Stairway to Heaven_?” Jane shouts around The Breeze.

“But we did the _Ragtime Gal_ freestyle on the way here,” Dave responds, “and if I ever hear another goddamn Snoop song again, I will do an acrobatic fucking pirouette off this universe. Do you think I should switch to Beastie Boys? No, wait, I got it…” he starts mumbling, and since you’re at the other end of the line of flying teens, you can’t discern the words anymore.

“I have a faint and easily-squashable hope we’re not going to have to listen to him rap all the way back,” Karkat says. He's shouting again, and you know he would be even if you didn't have to speak up over The Breeze. It's comforting.

“I dunno, it’s kind of nice to just be going somewhere, isn’t it?” you reply. “Like a road trip to a famous landmark, except that the landmark is a giant frog and we’re probably not going to stop partway for fast food.” With each marked meteor and/or horrorterror, you turn in the appropriate direction. You look back at Karkat with a smile.

“You’re going to make us crash if you don’t watch out for the meteors.” Karkat is still clinging to you just as tightly as before. You’re all still tired, Karkat has various bits of your hood tied around him, and you are _covered_ in blood, but you mostly feel an immense sense of relief.

“I won’t crash us,” you smile. Karkat gives you the most sentimental constipated look you’ve ever seen. You lower your voice so only he can hear. “And I won’t drop you, either.” The corner of Karkat’s mouth twitches, like he’s trying not to return your smile. It’s not so daunting when you can tell he knows what you really mean.

“Yeah, well, you better not.” You’re content to let the whooshing of The Breeze and Dave’s new rap fill up the silence. After a short while, you gradually become aware of a pattern in the directions Dave and Jane left on the way here.

"Are these directions the Konami code?" you ask more loudly, in a tone much the same as Jane's questioning of Led Zeppelin. You follow the path markers from one asteroid field to another.

"The what?" Karkat asks.

"Turns out the horrorterrors have a sense of humor," Dave says. You try not to think about the various remains of tentacled monstrosities the four of you constantly pass by.

"I think Roxy taught it to them, John," Jane pipes in, temporarily pausing in her beatboxing duties.

"That's the most awesome thing ever," Dave says.

"What do I do when I get to B?" Your question is answered for you when a giant letter B in vegetation appears on a nearby asteroid.

"What's the Konami code?" Karkat repeats. "I know you can hear me through all this windy nonsense." You laugh and pull him closer as you dart off in the new direction.

 

(illustration by [ket3](http://archiveofourown.org/users/ket3)/[@tumblr](http://ket3.tumblr.com/))

**Author's Note:**

> A large portion of the fic deals with impending character death and the sadstuck that accompanies it, but I promise it has a happy ending. Violence/injuries include descriptions of eye damage, amputation (with use of a tourniquet), and cancer.


End file.
